Oh What A Time... - #168 Invasions & Why The British Invaded Iceland (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

This is Part 2! For Part 1, check the feed!This week we’re looking at various invasions and subsequent occupations through history; we’ve got Nordic allied invasions in WW2 (including Iceland!), the Norman occupation of Sicily and the story of how Gibraltar became British!Elsewhere, we’re marvelling at how turning things off and on again really seems to work. And are you a Safari guy or girl? Who likes Internet Explorer? Anyone for Chrome? And what technological invention did you assume would be bigger than it was? You know what to do: [e-mail] from now on Part 1 is released on Monday and Part 2 on Wednesday - but if you want more Oh What A Time and both parts at once, you should sign up for our Patreon! On there you’ll now find:•The full archive of bonus episodes•Brand new bonus episodes each month•OWAT subscriber group chats•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone elseJoin us at 👉 patreon.com/ohwhatatimeAnd as a special thank you for joining, use the code CUSTARD for 25% off your first month.You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh Water Time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else. Add free. Plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets and access to the O Watertime Group chat. Plus if you become an O Watertime All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis will riff on your name to postulate

where else in history you might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash O Water Time. Hello and welcome to part two of our Occupations. Let's get on with the show. Now, if you're from Britain, the chances are you probably think of the Norman, whenever you think of the Normans, that is. Which is how often?

Which is, for me, twice a month. Let's just drill down into that. What might be the situation when you're thinking about them? If I go back to visit my mum and dad, I pass a few Norman castles. Yeah. And then I do think about the Normans, genuinely. And your next-door name is called Norman.

You see him about once a month. He's actually called Norman the Conquer. That's the mad thing. I mean, if it was William the Conquer, it would be perfect, but it's almost spot on. So whenever you think, like me, about the Normans twice a month, the person you think of is usually Duke William, the man who invaded England in 1066,

and became William the Conqueror. You might know as well. Now, I didn't, I must admit, I'm quite good at sort of parliamentary stuff, or so I thought, but I didn't know this. that when legislation is passed by the British Parliament, it is announced in Norman French. What?

La Roy Le Verre. That's a great fact. The king wills it. So for a long time he was Lorraine, the Queen. But no, no, as a sort of legacy of the Norman conquest and England being invaded in 1066, yeah, when legislation is passed by the British Parliament, it is announced in Norman French.

That is a great fact. I love that. Yeah, yeah, really good fact. There are a few other phrases that are still used, but few would know what they mean. But all that needs to be said is they are survivors of an earlier age of an older occupation. Now, the great survivors the language spoken by the Normans are. And I didn't know this either. The versions of French spoken in the Channel Islands.

So there's Jersey French, Guernsey French and Sark French. And those are derived, that's from Norman. From Norman French, yeah, from a thousand years ago. How interesting. I think it's slightly different to the sort of French as spoken on the. of French mainland. I didn't know about that, yeah. But the Norman influence in medieval Europe

didn't only extend to islands off the coast of France. In fact, the great empire of the Normans stretched from England, where's an island in the north to Malta, Sicily and Naples in the south. Not bad. Isn't that mad?

A great cultural realm that had its roots in the travels of the many travels of the Vikings. So at the time of the Norman conquest of Sicily, which began in earnest in 1061, so that's five years before William the Conqueror, you know, got to Hastings, the island was part of the Arab world.

So Sicily was part of the Arab world and an emirate under the Fatimid caliphate based in Cairo. So culture and language were multifaceted, reflecting, this is all in Sicily now, this fusion of post-Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab Islamic influences. So the population of Sicily was multi-confessional and was multilingual. But what it wasn't, which I don't think many people would know us,

or maybe I'm wrong, it certainly wasn't exclusively Christian. and it wasn't exclusively Latin as in languages that sort of derived from Latin. Right. So this was to prove reason enough in the age of the Crusades to compel Europeans to try and recover the island of Sicily for the faith and for Rome. Ah.

So, yeah, so Sicily was this sort of multi-ethnic, multicultural melting pot. Love it. Now, enter a pair of brothers, Robert and Roger, who sound like boring people, you end up talking to her a barbecue. They sound like people who wouldn't like the people who wouldn't like the fact it's a multicultural multi-cultural pot. Yes, I think I know how Robert and Roger vote, actually. They immediately hung flags around Cisivac.

Otterville family, who claimed descent from the 10th century Viking called, I think it's Healt, but maybe Healt because he's double L, son of Iver, which does not like you from Camarthen, but Robert and Roger were mercenaries looking to bash heads and make money, so they willingly took up arms in the campaign to force the Arabs and the Byzantines out of the Italian peninsula. So they might as well have gone to Spain for much of the same purpose

because this sort of thing was happening in Spain as well. Now Robert, being older, was given the title Lord of Sicily by the Pope in 1059. And so he figured he ought to make good on the idea, so he invaded. So taking advantage of Arab infighting, he and his brother landed in 1061.

Just to be absolutely clear, they've got an army behind them. Oh yeah, yeah, it's not just the two of them, yeah. It's not just two really hard guys. They were hard. Yeah. Like a lads holiday?

They're hard lads on a lads holiday. Because you keep saying Robert and Roger invaded. Like they've just got off the boat. They're just really tough. Let's have a look at this thing. I don't see anyone putting that much of a fight. Yeah. Okay.

So Robert and Roger and their armies quickly conquered Messina. And they got all the way to Castro Giovanni, which is today's Enner, in the centre of the island, before encountering any real resistance. So overtime, Nicassia, Palermo, Syracuse and Notto, all fell to their advance. Now, the whole campaign with waves of resistance took 30 years.

Wow. Ending in 1091. Before then, in 1071, a decade into the process, Robert passed on leadership of Sicily to Roger. These names, I can't take them seriously. Yeah. Yeah, so true. Roger especially doesn't sound like a mercenary.

Well, Roger became Count of Sicily. Roger Count of Sicily. I don't know if maybe was it, was it Robert? and Roger maybe, I don't know, but that was Robert and Roger who benefited, and so it was Roger who benefited most of the conquest. So Robert kept a whole of his other titles and so

remained the Duke of Poulia and Calabrian to his death in 1885. Not to be outdone, Roger invaded and conquered Malta in 1091. The island was likely defended, fairly easily to the Norman Front forces. They must have been Robert and Roger, mustn't it? Which does make it so much better. Now, Roger

lived until 11001 dying in his 70th year, having created an important realm in the Mediterranean. I love you, got straight back to Roger. It must have been Roger. Now, Roger, absolutely unwilling. I cannot see Roger and pronounce it Roger. You can still with Robert and Roger.

To me, they're Robert and Roger now, yeah. I've got, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Big, so Big Roger set about Latinising Sicily and Malta, for instance, by encouraging immigration from the Italian mainland. but he also practiced tolerance of Greek orthodox in Islamic cultures, preferring their natural decline in influence over any forced sort of diminution of power and authorities. The county of Sicily was a crossroads. He was at a crossroads between the Latin, Byzantine, Greek and Arab Islamic worlds,

fusing together languages, cultures and ideas. So, I'm going to get it right this time, Roger was briefly succeeded by his elder son, Simon. Simone. Which I'm assuming was Simone. Roger, Robert and Simon who ruled until 11.05. They are, yeah, they're also the people I was at school with. Then the county passed to Roger's youngest son

who ruled as Roger the second. Roger the second. His rule and later reign as the first king of Sicily marked a high point of medieval European multiculturalism. So he was a Norman of Viking ancestry who spoke Arabic, had Arabic inscriptions on his coinage and on his most elaborate clothing, who embraced Arab scholarship.

So from the Byzantine side, he fostered translation from Greek to Latin, leading to a new wave of learning and fresh understanding of classical ideas. And though the language of Roger's court was Norman, that version of French spoke in the northwest of France, its scribes were confidently multilingual, and they could produce documents in at least four of the languages,

Latin, Greek, Arabic and Hebrew. Wow, wow, wow, wow. So I suppose you could have been a translator. That would have been a good job. Yeah, absolutely. Because a friend of mine is a translator in Madrid. Oh, really? And I always think, yeah, so she was very good at languages at school

and languages for a degree. Sicily's beautiful, nice weather, good food. Yeah. Yeah, you're probably, they can't have come for the translators. That must have been quite a safe job, I reckon. Yeah. That's what I'd be in the 1100s. I'd be a translator.

Well, crucially, whoever in vain, you can just claim you're from there. Yeah, absolutely. If you've know enough languages. You'd think the translators would be the last ones to die. Good point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very, very good point, actually. The ultimate get-up clause.

Nothing symbolised the advance of Norman Sicily more than the tabula Rogelianna. Roger's tablet. The early iPads. One of the most important atlases ever produced. So commissioned by Roger the 2nd in 1138, the volume is complete in 1154, the year of Roger's death. That's the other thing as well is you would commission

that these things, knowing that they wouldn't be done for years after, it'd be like HS2. You're like, oh, well, you know, someone else will get the credit for this. And it contains 70 maps. That cathedral in Barcelona, L has literally just been finished, isn't it? Is it the Gowdy one? Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, which is incredible. It's one of the most amazing buildings I've ever been to.

The light through the windows there is just, like, just otherworldly. But it's only just been finished. And he knew in the planning of that, that would be the case. It would just continue to be built after his. That's amazing. That's legacy, isn't it? Well, Tabula, no, no, I tell you what's legacies. I don't know how many episodes we've done now,

but as long as... That'll be on the RSS feed forever. Yeah, yeah. The O-Watertime legacy. That's how I look at this. Now, the volume is completed in 1154, as I said. It contains some 70 maps and chart of the known world. So the cartographer was Mohamed al-Adrisi of Quetta,

which was an autonomous Spanish city on the tip of Morocco. Right. And what Mohamed al-Idrisi did, was he emphasised scientific rigour over divine inspiration and his maps were based on secular facts, not details drawn from holy texts. And when I'm looking at a map, that's what I want. I don't want, when I'm driving to a gig,

I don't want my Google map to be based on the Bible. I want it to be based on secular fact. I think we're all the same. Yeah, absolutely. So if you look at the Norman occupation of Sicily, which came about because of a desire to extend Latin influence over the entire Italian peninsula, it led to an unusual, though not entirely unique, experiment in bringing the four principal cultures in the Mediterranean together under one medieval roof. Orteville ruling in Sicily ended with the reign of Roger II's daughter, Constanza.

That's a better name. I don't know what the English version would that of that would be, Charlotte, maybe, who reigned in Sicily from 1194 until her death in 1198. she'd married into the German royal family and so was succeeded by her son Friedrich who brought Sicily into a realm which included the Holy Roman Empire, i.e. Germany, Sicily and the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.

So it's all to play for. Now somehow, Friedrich went even further than his grandfather, Roger II, in fostering the arts, turning Sicily and the capital Palermo into a centre for the arts, particularly for poetry. But he wasn't an entirely enlightened monarch because poets allowed freedom of expression only as regards to love.

They were subject to heavy censorship if they wrote poems about politics. Right. So as long as you're writing a love poem, do what you want, mate. Ah, interesting. If you're writing a citricle poem, I'm going to see, I'm going to need to see that before we print this. But he was known in his day, Friedrich, as Stupon Mundi, the wonder of the world, because they had such enthusiasm for letters, science and ideas. And that's the thing, you know, the best ideas come out.

of curiosity and sort of melting pots. It does an amazing thing for creativity even if there's an armed occupation somewhere

in the background. Absolutely. So where are we to presume the name Roger comes from? That's the big question, isn't it?

I would have guessed that is the most Anglo-Saxon name. Other than like Tony. I would have guessed that fifth... Roger and Tony are as British

as sausage and egg. And Robert, Big Rob. Yeah. Matt, Robert Les. Robert Lest, because I can say that'd be Robert. Yeah, yeah. Or Roberto. Yeah.

Roger could be Roger as well as discussed. So it could be that. I should have actually led down the wrong path by Ellis from the beginning. So that's... So there's a corrections corner. If anyone knows how that should be pronounced, do get in contact with the show. And we'll cover it in the future.

So to wrap up today's show on occupation, I'm going to be talking to you about Gibraltar. So are you guys familiar with the island of Gibraltar? Yes. I've never been there, but I know what it is. Well, you don't. Because it's not an island. It's a rock. You've fallen into my track.

It's a headland attached to Spain's southern coast, Ellis. It's so early. I've been doing, I'm like seven seconds into my session. and I've already absolutely kneecap the two of you. This is one of the big sort of misunderstandings about Gibralclair. Everyone seems to think it's an island. It's actually not. It's a headland.

It's this lump of rock, essentially, on the end of Spain's southern coast. It's very small. It's 2.6 square miles. I look this up, El. Camarthen is 2.33 square miles. It's like a sunny Camarvan. So it's not much difference in size. So Wales drew nil-nil-nil-nil with Camarvan.

Yes, with Camarden town. Each had to go. And that's not Commandant Shear, obviously. That is literally Commandant, the town. But although it's tiny, as I discussed earlier, Chris, in your section, as is often crucial in these situations, it's the geography where these places are found that leads to problems, war, occupation down the line.

And Gibraltar represents some prime real estate. It's at the mouth of the Mediterranean, the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It's a nearest point between Europe and Africa, and therefore it's no surprise that Gibraltar has been occupied multiple times since its medieval foundation as an Almohan watchtower in 1160 ADC. Now, it took the... It's the anti-greenland.

It is the anti-greenland. When World War III happens, the people of Gibraltar be like, the shit. Oh, God. So it took the Spanish three states. centuries to achieve control when in 1462, the Reconquista arrived to evict the last remaining Arab Islamic inhabitants. But we have to fast forward another 250 years to 1704 before we arrive at the start of Gibraltar's modern history, which is, of course, as part of the United Kingdom.

That's what I'm going to be talking to you about today. So to understand how that initial military occupation came about in 1704, we need to consider basically the formation, the function of the Grand Alliance. Have you heard of the Grand Alliance? What, against France? Well, this was established in December at 1689 and was a coalition led by Britain, the Habsburg Empire and the United Provinces, which is the Netherlands, to contain the territorial expansion of Louis XIV of France. You're quite right, Chris. That's exactly it. It's all about controlling his land grab, his expansion, his power. The alliance would eventually be embroiled in several conflicts, notable of which was the war of the Spanish succession, that was in 1700, which pitted Louis

the 14th grandson, Philippe of Anjou, against the Habsburg Emperor Archduke Charles, who was supported in his claim to the Spanish throne by the Grand Alliance. So the Grand Alliance was supporting Archduke Charles and his claims to power. It was in this period that the British and Dutch began searching for a base of operations from which to attack and stifle France's Mediterranean fleet. Their first attempt was an attack on Cadiz, which ended in failure, but a successful battle soon after, at Vigo in Galicia, which saw the destruction of local French ships, that also tip things towards the Allies. Portugal's king, Peter II, offered the use of Lisbon, which is useful, but it's still left open the question of who controlled entry and exit

through the Strait of Gibraltar, so that was the next target. So that's kind of the background. Some nice places being mentioned here. If I'm going to go to battle, Lisbon, Cadiz, some lovely places here. Yeah, but it's going to be very hot. That's a very good point, actually. In, you know, the armour and all that stuff. When you hear you're going to battle in Cadiz, do you think, A, lovely, when I'm not fighting,

or do you think that it's going to be, as a battleground, that's going to be intense? Is your initial reaction, tapas or, oh no, heat stroke? Which is your heat stroke? Yeah, yeah, okay, fair enough. You're probably right, to be honest. An Anglo-Dutch force, it arrives in Gibraltar on 1st of August 1704, and naval bombardment and amphibious assault by the British and Dutch Marines. It brings Gibraltar to heal on the 4th of August. British control was to be confirmed by the Treaty of Ultrept, which was signed in 1713, and ended the war in 1714.

But it was not long before the Spanish tried to take back what they'd lost, and they tried first in 1727 besieging Gibraltar for four months, although this battle was won by the British. but the more interesting and more serious attempt, which is really the main point of all of this, took place half a century later in 1779. This is a remarkable war for such a small place. It's incredible. This time, the Spanish and French troops, they laid a three and a half year siege on Gibraltar, which still to this day is the longest siege that the British forces have ever endured. Imagine how relentless that is, three and a half years of being under siege in a place that small. Isn't that just mad, dealing with that? It would be hard to remain positive.

Also, I thought the idea of a siege is you starve people out, or, you know, how are they getting fed? How are they able to make? Because there's no rummageable to maintain supplies. There was a co-op. That's what it was, yeah, exactly. It's a very good question. It was a really tough period, and tougher still when I give you the odds. It was roughly 5,000 to 7,000 British trees.

against a combined force of over 30,000 to 40,000 Spanish and French soldiers. So incredible odds against the British. But the British fought hard. One remarkable point of military ingenuity was key to all of this. This is incredible. The Franco-Spanish forces had constructed 10 specialised floating artillery ships, these huge things in the sea around Gibraltar, from which they were bombarding the British troops with shot and cannon fire.

but the British came up with a brilliant way of sinking these things. Try and guess what they did. It's just so clever because these things were supposed to be impervious. You couldn't sink them. But the British came up with a brilliant way of getting rid of them. And he guesses what they did. Something to do with fire. Are they throwing like...

It is to do with fire. Very good. I'll give you another clue. It's something called a heat shot. Do you know what that is? Oh, it's not like boiling cannonball. Yes. So they heated their cannonballs in furnaces,

made them really hot and then they waited till they were red to the eye and then they fired them at the ships and although the enemy sailors sort of kind of attempted to douse and put them out, the heat would ignite the ship's timbers and then their gunpowder magazines and then these seemingly impenetrable things

would then sink because the fire would rip through because the cannonballs were so hot. Isn't that clever? Very clever. Amazing. I mean horrific and clever. Doesn't like a great way to die, does it? No.

Especially in the heat of green. Cadiz. Last few seconds, trying to put out a cannonball. Yeah. With a bucket of water. So the Spanish and French had chosen this time for good reason. They'd hoped to capitalise on the fact that Britain was distracted. Do you know why Britain was distracted at that point?

Quite a big thing. What was the year again? This was in 1779. Yeah, I'm going to say Napoleon. No, American independence. Oh, yes. The American War of Independence. In fact, the significance of this thing is.

three and a half year siege of Gibraltar, known as the great siege of Gibraltar, cannot be underestimated, as London was compelled to devote military resources to Gibraltar's defence, which might otherwise have been sent to North America. So basically, in short, London had to choose between defending Gibraltar and defeating the American insurrection, basically winning the American War of Independence. In fact, and it's an amazing thing, many historians argue that the United States of America exists because of the choice of London. made at that point. Really?

Wow. So Gibraltar is key to the existence of the United States because it's felt if all the resources had been pushed out to America, maybe the result would be different. But even, yeah, it's amazing. It's what an amazing fact that is, this tiny little rock had such a global impact at that time. But even when the siege was over, the matter was not settled there,

for the Spanish had demanded a heavy commitment from France to enter the American War of Independence. On the colonist side, France, of course, had sided with the colonists because it would be a body blow to the old enemy Britain. And Paris agreed to Madrid's demand that they would fight as long as it took to take Gibraltar no matter the cost. And it was a fateful agreement since it set France on the path to its own revolution in 1789. In the wake of the siege, which was finally lifted in 1783, Gibraltar was rebuilt, it's reinforced. And during the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, which followed 1789, it was turned into one of four imperial

fortresses in the British Empire, along with Halifax in Nova Scotia, Bermuda, Malta, and it's played a major role in British strategic thinking ever since. Indeed, such was its significance. I'd no idea about this. The Nazis planned their own invasion of Gerolta during the Second World War. This was an endeavour known as Operation Felix, but the Spanish dictator, Franco, fresh from his own victory in the Spanish Civil War, was reluctant to enter this new war. So he refused to allow German forces to attack Gibraltar from Spanish territory and the plan was shelved. So if it wasn't for that, they would have amounted an attempt to take Gibraltar. And it was a moment of sort of convenient lucidity on Franco's part. But after 1945, he soon went back to the old way

demanding that Gibraltar be returned to Spain. And despite a referendum in 1967, which showed the population wanted to remain British, the Spanish refused to accept. And from In 1969 until 1985, when common membership of the European Economic Community, which is later the European Union, solved the problem, the border between Gibraltar and Spain was completely closed. So that whole period, there was no border. From Spain's point of view, the occupation which began in 1704 was still ongoing. They completely closed the door to the order because of it. A precedent had been set way back in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars when Spain allowed Britain to occupy the city of Seota and the opposite side. of the strait. This was then followed by Madrid precisely because the British agreed to hand back the keys as soon as the war was over. And if they could do it on one side of the water, then why not

the other? And it's a fair question. This is going to wrap it up, really. The truth is a bit more complicated for the original European owners of Seutu were Portuguese and not the Spanish. And it was because of Spanish settlement and Spanish cultural allegiance that in 1668 control transferred from Lisbon to Madrid. So in other words, Soyotar believed it's supposed to be Spanish. The same is true of Gibraltar, where the population's cultural ties are to Britain to the lasting legacy of military occupation, which developed into a whole new society. So you can buy a fry it there.

So you can buy exactly. If we take one thing from all of this, it's you can buy a fry up in Gibraltar. But that's why this little tiny, this tiny rock, as I say, is a place only marginally bigger than Kamarvan was besieged by France and Spain. And the Nazis wanted to take it over. Somehow it's still British. And yeah, remarkable really. Such a small place, you could have such a,

which we say, eventful history. I'd like to go. Maybe the next time Wales are going to have a nil-neal draw there, I'll pop over and watch. Perfect. That's it for occupations. Hope you enjoyed that. And if you did and you want more,

oh, what a time? Well, you know what you can do. Most likely, next week's episode is available now on patreon.com forward slash, oh, what a time. Also, all the bonus episodes too. If you want to sign up, you can go to patreon.com forward slash oh watertime. But otherwise, we'll see you next week. Bye, bye.

Goodbye. Oh, water time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else, ad free, plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets, and access to the Oh, Whatter Time group chat. Plus, if you become an O Water Time All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis, will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash oh what a time.